


Gifts From Nobody

by Seastar_Constellation



Category: One Piece
Genre: Actor Law, Ballin' on a budget, Fluffy, Idiots, Idiots in Love, M/M, Vlogger Luffy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26036734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seastar_Constellation/pseuds/Seastar_Constellation
Summary: Luffy is a vlogger and Law is an actor. How do they meet and why? Let's find out.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Comments: 83
Kudos: 118





	1. Humble Beginnings

Life didn’t give Luffy an easy path. Orphaned as a baby, Luffy grew up with an extremely strict grandpa and two lifelong friends turned sworn brothers: Ace and Sabo. Ace, the eldest of the trio, worked as a firefighter to help support his two younger brothers. Ever the middle child in the way he mediated all the chaos his brothers caused, Sabo enrolled in the local college to become a lawyer. This meant that Sabo earned the opportunity to work as an intern through the college’s experience program with a downtown law office. The internship even paid some of the brothers’ bills in a refreshing and grateful surprise! Luffy knew that his education ended after obtaining his Bachelors. As a young twenty-something that tried his best to get through his college years, he found his disabilities like ADHD and a hint of dyslexia made even getting that degree incredibly difficult.

The older brothers handled the expenses of their household, well… apartment-hold. Living with such different jobs and schedules, the brothers created an individual list of jobs that catered to those best suited for the position. As Ace and Sabo labored with longer hours than their youngest counterpart, Luffy found himself appointed chef of their family.

The brothers collected a month’s worth of cooking horror stories before Luffy gathered enough experience to cook without a disaster. His brothers did the dishes though.

_**No exceptions**_.

In order to make his chore more enjoyable, Luffy invited his friend Sanji, who happened to be in training to become a professional chef, over to help him create delicious meals out of what little they could afford. Luffy spent hours tossing out ideas, usually involving instant ramen or re-heatables since those populated his pantry the most often. Luffy found it easy to distract himself with creating new dishes instead of focusing on any foreboding sense of dread that accompanied the territory of getting older and school work. The meals they made together often tasted more delicious than expected and fed an entire army for a week or about three days at the brother’s apartment. The culinary successes created a surprising amount of interest from others and Luffy got the idea in his head that people needed to know how to make meals on a budget so they weren’t stuck with boring food like bread sandwiches for dinner.

He began his videos with help from his many friends, having them on as guests and asking them to help edit his videos. Granted, his friends mostly assisted him by handing him the gathered ingredients and making sure there weren’t too many awful jokes. Gaining a good follower base took Luffy a few months to build up on YouTube. Nami eventually devised a plan to fully integrate Luffy’s social media togher. Soon he started to gain more followers on other social media sites like Instagram and Tik Tok, which showed off the finished product and linked back to his original videos.

And he thanked her every day, in his head at least.

“Ballin’ on a Budget,” his most popular series on the channel showed Luffy getting drunk and teaching people how to both shop for a family of five and prepare a week’s worth of food that wouldn’t go bad in a few days. Considering the most common and cheapest ingredients selected for the budging individual, the main goal of the meals he created for this segment largely depended on two things: dressing up the food in different ways and creating a large flavor palate so families don’t feel a repetition of tastes.

The most popular episodes by far contained the chef, Luffy, ranting and raving about how Trafalgar D. Water Law, a famous actor that Luffy adored, should be labeled a menace to society with how hot and distracting that man could be. Luffy found it extremely difficult to articulate in full sentences just how incredibly attractive he found this man. Yet this challenge often did not stop him from ranting. “No! You don’t- You DO NOT UNDERSTAND!” He yelled with snickers from his current guest and friend, Ussop, who had gotten him on the topic on purpose. “His hair looks so _sooooooooooft_ and – and he looks like he could snap me _in half_. **IN HALF I SAY**!” He loudly announced to the audience without a hint of shame. “Fuck. I wanna be snapped in half. Is it the tattoos? Probably… Yeah, definitely, but also… His face. And the buff arms? I wanna _squeeeeeeeeze_.” This part, of course, came while Luffy juiced a lemon. It all fit quite perfectly with the timing and his friends on set died laughing.

“Ballin’ on a Budget” became the honest to goodness YouTube playlist that lured in enough subscribers to allow Luffy to get paid for his videos. This monetary and visible success definitely made Luffy feel better about the direction of his life and relieved some stress from his mind. With funding from YouTube, Luffy started pushing out more videos. He learned to edit as well so his friends didn’t do so much for him. Their help became optional instead of required. But not only his personal friends tried to help. Denizens of the internet started sending him things that they thought he needed or should try and Luffy always thanked everyone for everything that he received. The packages usually held some fan-made stuff or different kinds of instant noodles. A favorite gift happened to be a tumbler, specially made with an image of Trafalgar Law on it, which promptly became a staple in the kitchen shows, never leaving Luffy’s side. He jokingly referred to the drink holder as his boyfriend and would hug it for good luck.

Fans, being what they are, began trying to link or tag the famous actor in the videos that included the rants or the absolutely adorable drunken Luffy in general. Luffy’s audience became absolutely determined to get him in contact with his favorite actor one way or another. Their attempts seemed to be useless, though they wouldn’t know it.

Law never personally checked his social media and didn’t even want to have any accounts to begin with. Cora, Law’s agent, insisted that a social media presence would be a great idea so his fans could interact with him, even if it happened to be a pseudo interaction. They hired two of Law’s old friends to run his social media, Sachi and Penguin. They duo crashed at Law’s house most of the time anyway, so they might as well be paid to do something while also getting the chance to hang out with their friend more often. They succeeded at their job, mostly because they snuck high quality pictures of Law to post from behind the scenes at different TV shows and movies that he worked on. With Law’s acting career based off of a few medical dramas, pop culture ended up calling him Dr. Heartstealer and so, his social media accounts followed suit. Sachi and Penguin made sure at least some fans got responses as did some of his fellow actors to make it seem as if Law found such interactions interesting. Occasionally, the duo suggested posts and videos for Law to enjoy or give an opinion on.

It happened to be one of those lounge about lazy days that Sachi and Penguin finally caught sight of a largely popular of Luffy’s videos, thanks to the incredibly determined and dedicated fans Luffy had gathered. Sachi and Penguin thought it would be a riot to see someone ranting about their dear friend and kind of hoped the video contained a roast of sorts, so they put the clip up on the big screen while Law fiddled around in the kitchen for something that one might generously call a meal. Law couldn’t be bothered to do anything on his day off that would take up too much energy. His friend’s rioting laughter caught his attention and made him look toward the video playing on the giant screen. He made his way into the room and glanced at the two before his eyes flicked to the screen again. “What are you two watching now?” He asked, already sounding exasperated, as if they sucked away any and all energy he had been trying to conserve. He peaked back to the screen as Sachi took charge of explaining through a barrage of giggles while Penguin at his side could barely manage to breathe right.

“This.. This guy! H.. He loves you so much it’s hilarious!” He declared before falling back into the couch due to his giggle fit. “It’s really adorable though! He makes cooking videos to teach people how to eat decently on a tight budget and he just adores you.” Sachi could not stop laughing long enough to even notice Law walking away from the main room with his bowl of cereal. “Hey wait! Come on and watch it with us! It’s cute!’ He called out before a door was slammed and left the duo to laugh and watch the remainder of the show on their own.

“Fucking idiots.” Law sighed and shook his head, shambling over to his bed to eat his light meal and flip on something that had nothing to do with what he’d seen on the television. The guy on the screen appeared pretty cute at first glance, sure. But Law felt like the man reached through the TV to suck the energy from Law’s limited supply. The actor already endured Sachi and Penguin on his day off. He knew that even watching such an animated person would have him feel like he needed another nap. He just needed to relax with his puppy, Bepo, who gave him all the positive love he’d ever need. Law didn’t take long to finish his meager meal of cereal, the lowest energy thing he could make, and curl up on his bed with the all white, very fluffy, and most importantly easy-going Samoyed puppy. “They like to tease too much.” He sighed and complained to his sweet Bepo, who licked his nose and caused a smile to form on his face. “You get me, Bepo. You’re a good boy.” Being cuddled up like this caused Law to begin to fall asleep for his next nap. He would take Bepo for a walk after he woke up to thank him for listening so well.


	2. First Admiration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Law gets a little addicted and Luffy receives a gift.

A few months passed since the video of the cute college kid reared its head and presented itself to Law through Sachi and Penguin. The incident with the video seemed to be all but forgotten and Law accepted a new role in an upcoming show: a House reboot with cameos from the original Dr. House. The producers wanted Law to become the brand-new star with a completely fresh take on the cynicism. Instead of a barely sober drug addict with trust issues, Law’s character portrayed a sexy drug addict with trust issues. Truly a brand new take on an edgier Dr. House to draw in the younger crowd and the diseases ranged from a mix of common but hard to diagnose and the absolutely ridiculous. Medical dramas seemed to still be running strong, but others became too focused on the personal lives of the doctors and barely held patient interactions anymore. The executives swore to save the genre from the repetitive mistakes of this show’s predecessors.

Law took his time with reading through scripts and made sure that he could memorize at least some of the lines before they began shooting. During his downtime, he started scrolling through his YouTube feed and found a video, which held a host who seemed familiar. The thumbnail showed an image of the college kid that he’d seen when walking through his living room six months ago, but the title caused him to stop. It said that the dish being created that day on Ballin’ with a Budget happened to be one of his childhood favorites: chicken and rice casserole. He hadn’t been able to taste the dish in years due to the passing of his mom and not being able to find the proper recipes. Years passed since he last tried as every failure hurt in a way he couldn’t describe. He scrunched his face at the title and curiosity got the better of him. “Maybe I can make this. Maybe it’ll look like mom’s…” He wondered to himself out loud before looking around to make sure he was alone as he pressed the play button on the video.

The screen came to life with a bubbly Luffy who brought in boxed wine and a plastic wine glass to make sure that any mistakes did not lead to injuries during the more drunken parts of the segment. “Goooood day everybody! Welcome back to another Ballin’ on a Budget! This one was a highly requested meal that many people’s families seemed to make when they were younger. I know that this all looks like a lot of ingredients, but I promise that they’re either cheap or will last you a long time and are worth the money. Chances are that you have most of these already since they’re spices!” The smile that Luffy wore made Law melt a little on the inside, but he shook his head and focused on looking across the list of ingredients. He paused the video, finding it hard watch his phone screen, and put the video up on the tv in his bedroom. This would make for easier watching and understanding what he was seeing.

Law allowed the video to continue and of course it began with a glass of wine and Luffy getting his good luck hug from his Law tumbler. This time the chef kissed its cheek and laughed before continuing on to the measurements. Law never truly understood cooking and how it worked, mainly because he believed that there would be far too much energy involved. This video began to change his mind. Maybe the reason involved the host of this show… Luffy? He made everything seem so easy by laying it all out in simple digestible steps. Another good reason could be that Law did not realize that he missed his mother so much. He needed to make this dish. He started to pay closer attention to the animated figure on the screen and even began to enjoy that odd tone of voice. He seemed to always be upbeat and happy. He wondered if someone could actually be such a thing all the time.

It was a conundrum.

As the time went on, Law decided to assign a color to Luffy and that color was sunshine yellow. He’d only seen one video in full, of course, but his decision stood. Even as Luffy became more and more inebriated while waiting for the casserole to finish cooking, he seemed to just be… yellow. Law stood from his bed and looked around before finding his phone hidden in the sheets and decided to check through his kitchen. He got excited when he realized that all the ingredients he needed appeared to be there. Despite today being his day off, Law got to work and started the video from the beginning to follow along with Luffy and cook the casserole.

About an hour later of waiting for the casserole to cook, most of that time spent watching more videos of Luffy’s, and Law found himself enjoying the incredibly cheesy jokes that flowed out of the drunken version of the chef. He couldn’t remember the last time that he laughed so honestly and it felt nice. He decided at that moment that he wanted to do something for the host of Ballin’ on a Budget and dug around Youtube until he found the P.O. Box. He took a screenshot and removed his fresh casserole from the oven, fanning it to cool it down so he could eat it as soon as possible. Who knew that Law would get addicted to a stranger’s video about getting drunk and cooking?

“Alright… If I eat a bit of this and it tastes good then I’ll send him something. If it tastes terrible then he obviously doesn’t deserve a present from me.” He nodded definitively and cut himself a piece of the wonderful smelling food. He hummed and grabbed a fork to take a bite and he moved slowly, nervous about the outcome for some reason. Once the recipe touched his tongue he let out an audible groan, which caught the attention of someone coming through his front door. “Fuck.” He hissed and froze in place, like someone caught him doing something naughty or disgusting.

Penguin walked in and breathed in, about to call for Law before he was stopped by the sound of a moan and the smell of something that reminded him of home. “Law? Is everything chill in here, dude?” He asked as he made his way into the kitchen and saw Law hunched over a plate that held the delicious food.The taste slapped Law in the face and caused him to go slack-jawed. Penguin’s mouth fell open and he slowly lifted his phone to take a quick picture that he was definitely going to post on social media.

Law saw the phone, lifted his hand, and swallowed the food in his mouth all at once. “Penguin, I swear to **God**!” He yelled. “Erase that picture or else!” He warned, seeing the light in his old friend’s eyes that definitely dared him to make good on the promise.

And so the chase began. Bepo enjoyed chasing his owner and his owner’s friend around the house.

Law sprinted like never before and Penguin laughed so hard that it was difficult to see right. They ran throughout the house and even out and around the back yard. The sight of Law chasing his friend around is a beyond rare experience. Law seemed so desperate and Penguin missed one jump, his foot getting caught on the garden hose, before Law caught up and tackled him to the ground. They rolled around a bit and struggled before Law finally tore the phone away from Penguin’s grasp and deleted the picture with a heavy sigh. “You… You are taking Bepo for a walk.” He hissed and stood, letting out a heavy sigh as he tilted his head back and groaned to the sky.

Once back in the house, fully exhausted, the actor collapsed on his couch and began to scroll through some of the more expensive kitchen cooking items. He spotted something that seemed pretty cool, a stand mixer, and ordered it. He sent it to the P.O. Box with a note that declared **THE** Trafalgar D. Water Law wanted Luffy to have the device to make his cooking a bit easier. The gift cost a few hundred dollars, but that did not even put a dent in Law’s bank account. He decided to keep track of Luffy’s videos just to see what he said about the gift and then he would be done with the little channel.

Yeah. That would work.

In the coming weeks that it took for Luffy to get the present and make a video, Law watched almost every video that Luffy ever made and found himself hooked on the sunshine kid. It almost felt like a straight shot of serotonin to his brain and all of the compliments he received from the man helped to boost Law’s confidence. Law watched each video on the channel, whether he was curled up at home with Bepo at his side demanding cuddles and pets, or when the film crew happened to be between shots/on lunch break. His life became filled with the sunshine kid and Bepo even got used to the sound of Luffy’s voice and could tell when the videos would end. This led to Bepo reminding Law to move and eat in the between periods of videos by licking at his face and making small, concerned noises. This tactic proved to be incredibly effective.

A few weeks passed before the new video posted and Law saw the notification on the channel. The video description detailed a big gift arrived for the channel and Law found himself smiling and rushing to his dressing room to settle in and watch during his lunch break from filming. Ever the dutiful emotional support, Bepo lay at his feet while the newest video began to play.

“Hello again everyone! Welcome back to the mail corner, where we open all the mail that you send to me and we get to thank you all!” The bubbly ray of yellow energy announced, making Law’s heart pound. Of course, Law felt excited, he would not have to watch such energetic videos anymore once Luffy got the present and accepted it. The video went on, saving the larger packages for the final part. Finally, Luffy opened every gift except Law’s and addressed the camera. “Now, we’ve gone through all the mail that we have at the moment except for one.” The sounds of grunts and a little struggle pulling the package close made Law feel happy.

“A fan sent us a stand mixer!” Declared the male, eyes wide and he smiled to the camera, Law’s heart was full. “I’m afraid we can’t accept such a great gift. We’ll be donating it to a good organization that helps out starving families. Thank you so much for the gift that allows us to donate to charities that really deserve it! And to whomever sent that gift, I appreciate the thought that went into the note, but we all know that Law doesn’t send gifts, especially not to small YouTubers.” The laugh that rang through the phone could not correct the face that Law made. His expression showed absolute disbelief and then changed to an offended scoff.

“ **WHAT**?!” The yelling caught the attention of Law’s co-stars and he resorted to clearing his throat and calming himself before speaking to his phone. “I’ll fucking show YOU who doesn’t send gifts.” Law formed a plan and after he finished with filming that day, he would put it into action. Luffy would have to accept his next gift.


	3. Disbelief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fun and a little bit heartfelt. An intro to Luffy's deep love of Trafalgar Law and why.

Luffy never in his life expected to receive a gift in the mail that weighed so much. When Luffy and brothers received a call from the Post Office that the P.O. Box they kept filled much faster than the usual turnaround.. The trio assumed the packages only contained letters or hand-made trinkets. The box that arrived blew past all their expectations, and while not wrapped, no one believed that it actually held a stand mixer. It felt even more unlikely that the stand mixer came from the Baraté KitchenWare line of appliances. When they arrived home and only Sabo’s schedule allowed for some free time, Sabo needed to drive Luffy to and from the post office for these trips, both contemplating about the box and so, without filming, they opened the box to screen just in case it happened to be filled with something personal that a sender may not want on camera. “... _ Holy Shit _ …,” whispered Luffy in stunned disbelief. Sabo whistled at the gift before going back outside. The blond brother carried in more packages and letters from the car. It seemed never ending. “Someone actually sent me a stand mixer and said it’s from Law.” He repeated to his brother, smiling and excited but also feeling a bit down. “I can’t accept something like this.” He groaned, knowing his brother likely wouldn’t outright understand the reasoning.

“What do you mean you can’t keep it? It was a gift, right?” The older man called behind him before walking in with the last load and admiring how shiny and new the gift turned out to be. “I’m sure the person who did send it just wanted to help you with your cooking. Doesn’t this make some of the processes easier?” He asked, wanting to understand his brother’s thinking. Sabo sat down beside the flabbergasted male. Sabo could see the conflict that was raging inside of Luffy at the moment. “Let’s talk this out, huh?” He asked with a smile while settling down on their living room couch.

The conversation lasted a few hours between Luffy and Sabo, sometimes including friends that popped by to help along with the set up of the mail time. Nami and Ussop believed that a gift freely given should be used while Sanji and Luffy argued that it defeated the entire purpose of the show. ‘Ballin’ on a Budget’ meant using common appliances that are found in most, if not all, households so viewers did not feel the need to waste money on items they cannot afford and would not have bought in the first place. Sabo played mediator between the two sides and they all eventually came to the same conclusion. Luffy would announce the mixer last and thank the viewer for the generous gift while also explaining the intention of their show. The gift would then be sent to a charity where someone could get use out of it helping the people who really needed the help. That way everyone could be satisfied, _and_ the mixer could be used.

Once the group posted the video, they waited with baited breath to discover if their audience approved of the decision. The audience’s opinion mattered to the rag-tag group. However there would be no changes to their mutual decision as they took time and put care into something that worked for everyone. Thankfully, most of the audience understood their reasoning and the mixer could still be put to good use. Some of the audience did not even bother to comment about the choice and instead began joking about the person signing the card as Trafalgar Law. Everyone commenting about it came up with some conspiracy theories about why someone would say that Law sent such a device when none of the tweets and posts on Instagram seemed to have been interacted with by the famous actor. The most unbelievable by far claimed that Law actually sent the mixer and Luffy just threw away a gift.

The next few days held Luffy getting the mixer to one of his favorite charities that helped to feed himself and his brothers throughout their childhoods: Makino’s Pantry. It employed grandmothers and mothers down on their luck to cook and provide housing for orphaned children in bad situations. Sometimes the group provided mock job interviews and clothing when possible to assist in the procurement of full and part time jobs. Suffice to say that this organization meant a lot to Luffy and his brothers, so being able to give back of what it gave to them held a sense of accomplishment that they never experienced before.

“That felt really good. That felt a lot better than I thought it would.” A bubbly Luffy announced to his brothers, who accompanied him to the charity organization. Upon arrival the head of the organization came out and hugged each of them before giving them some food to go home with. They couldn’t say no to Makino. No one could say no to Makino.

No one.

Sabo laughed and nodded as he carried the bag of food to the car. “She hasn’t changed one bit either.” He commented with a grin on his face. Each of the brothers received kisses and held the marks of said kisses on their cheeks and foreheads. 

Ace sighed and tried to wipe the red lipstick from his face before they reached the car. “That’s for sure. She knows how to get her way for sure.” He sounded annoyed, but the smile on his face gave away that he enjoyed her presence. 

On the way home, the brothers talked about their past relationship with the charity and decided amongst themselves to hold a charity event with all proceeds and gifts going to Makino’s Panty. The plans needed to be made quickly, but it would be in the works for the upcoming videos on Luffy’s channel. Ace and Sabo promised to help by spreading the word at the firehouse and the law school.

A few weeks passed since the donation of the stand mixer and Luffy decided to make a new ‘Ballin’ on a Budget’ of something a little more healthy than usual. Luffy wanted to make the meals more balanced than in the past. Putting forth a healthier product could help even more people! This time around he decided to make a broccoli casserole with flavor, so it didn’t just take like warmed over trash. Not everyone liked the plain taste of broccoli and no one could blame them. Different strokes for different folks and all.

This week’s guest happened to be Zoro as the green hair matched with the theme and Luffy got in a few jokes while they mixed together the ingredients for the filling. “Well sure your hair isn’t all poofy, but it  _ is _ green and  _ that _ is why you were invited for this video. You match!” The sunshine boy declared happily. A few packs of Mike’s Hard Lemonade that they saved up over a period of weeks ended up being the drink of choice shared between the two best friends. They did explain that coupons helped to pay for everything in the kitchen that day.

“Oh, shut up. The joke is not even that clever.” Zoro blew off the comments with a lazy smile while rolling his eyes. “You’re reaching for low hanging fruit with your humor.” He teased and wiggled his eyebrows while Luffy gasped and clutched his very special Law tumbler to his chest. “We all know that your key feature is the obsession with Trafalgalalalala or whomever the fuck is on that tumbler.” He knew his best friend and predicted those words would set Luffy off on a rant. Just as planned. This meant that Zoro obtained his revenge and they got more content for the channel since it seemed that commenters needed more tipsy Trafalgar rants.

Luffy’s loud and offended gasp lasted a full minute while he covered the ears of the tumbler that held the visage of his precious Law. “ _ You troublesome bitch. _ ” The first words of a potentially hour-long rant that would be cut down to fit the video. Hilarious jump cuts ensued. “He is a  _ saint _ of a human being, you uncultured  _ swine _ . To think that someone I considered a true  _ friend  _ would say such things in my presence. You  _ know _ that I would fucking  _ die _ for this man and you have the actual  _ audacity  _ to act as if you don’t know who he is?! I literally talk about him every day!” 

Zoro bet Luffy’s obsession and rants could endure longer than the heat death of the universe.

“He absolutely loves his dog! Bepo is the sweetest pupper! There is no way someone doesn’t know about such an adorable creature! He literally makes his own posts on Tik Tok and the only videos he posts are his fucking dog! That is a  _ golden human being. _ ” Became a meme and preferred gif so quickly their heads spun. Some people even began using them as reaction images. Part way through the rant Luffy began drunk crying, yes crying, because one of Law’s characters ended up dying in a titular part of a movie, a bullshit decision, according to Luffy. He listed at least ten reasons why Law’s character should have survived and took absolutely no criticism from his friends.

And if at least three of them boiled down to ‘BECAUSE I DON’T WANT HIM TO DIE!’ then no one blamed the sobbing drunk man.

One of the many quotable moments from this particular rant involved a small role that the actor played years ago when first starting out. Not many people knew about this role or believed that it held any significance, but Luffy disagreed as always. “No No No! You don’t  _ understand _ . His character is on screen like, ten minutes all together, right? But he was  _ so important  _ to the story. He died early in the movie but he was sacrificing himself for the sake of protecting the animal that eventually became the main character’s best friend. The best friend that stopped the main character from offing themselves in despair. Without the small thing he did in the movie, the main character would have died and  _ that  _ makes the character the most important person in that movie.” This, of course, held a weight that showed just how much this movie affected Luffy. “It shows that no matter how small a person is, they have incredible value and are around for a reason.”

This brought the overlooked movie to people’s attention since that detail seemed of great importance to Luffy and even caused a hashtag to form. This hashtag grabbed the attention of Law’s agency, the Heart Agency, namely Cora, Penguin and Sachi. They felt the need to show Law this college student who cared so much about his roles and hoped it would push the actor to interact more with his fans. When they started to pull up the video and headed over to approach Law, Sachi recognized that the video had already been fully watched and saved to a favorites list that only held one other video of a chicken and rice casserole, by the same user. Confused as he and Penguin never favorited the video, Sachi rushed to look at the history and found one video on repeat for a full week, possibly multiple times a day. By process of elimination, he concluded that Law already watched. Although it seemed that Law became hooked long before this one video.

The next round of fan mail for Luffy and the general crew of his show came about a month after the video of Luffy’s longest and most emotional rant yet. The group expected to have quite a bit more to unload this time as compared to the last where they received the stand mixer. Thankfully, the stars aligned to create a perfect day. Ace happened to be off that day and his car fit more mail and packages than Sabo’s vehicle. They also predicted their circumstances correctly. The P.O. Box overflowed once again and this time the postal workers needed to help them load up the car. The boxes this time around seemed much bigger than ever before, which caused most of the build-up, but the volume of letters increased as well.

Many of these boxes held donatable items to go to Makino’s Pantry since the audience members became interested in where exactly the crew wanted the stand mixer to go. There needed to be at least two mail episodes in order to get through everything. It almost brought tears to Luffy’s eyes with how many donations filled the back of Ace’s car. They almost needed to make two trips. Franky got creative.

Once home, Luffy set up the camera and began to record the mail corner, declaring that he would focus split this month’s mail video into two due to the overwhelming response. Today’s video contained the packages. On the next video which would be posted in the coming days, Luffy opened the letters. “Okay, so a lot of these have been marked for donation to our favorite organization, Makino’s Pantry.” He smiled at the camera with great enthusiasm. “Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all of this. It will be put to good use and if you like this video enough, I’ll give a tour of the place and their daily habits.” He commented and grinned. “Now, for the first box here, this one is not specifically marked to be donated so let’s see what we’ve been gifted! It’s huge and heavy!” He tried his best to describe the box being pushed into the camera’s view.

Upon opening the package, he read the letter that seemed to be handwritten and his face screwed up a bit. He seemed confused. “Ah… I understand that everyone is really happy I’m super into Law, but you guys shouldn’t sign his name. It’s really good and all, but his name is his own. It shouldn’t be used in connection with gifts.” He shrugged and placed the note to the side before his eyes widened and he gasped as he looked into the box. “What the… This… This is amazing! The  _ entire  _ set of Barabé kitchenware! Ah! I can’t wait to donate it to the pantry! Thank you so much for the gift! It’s going to be put to good use!” 

One could almost feel the frustration coming from the gifter themselves.


	4. Desperation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Law catches feelings

Law spent his days waiting for the newest mail video to come out of Luffy’s channel by scrolling through the rest of Luffy’s content. He ended up following the sunshine child on Instagram and TikTok, where he found that all of Luffy’s comments appeared on his videos of Bepo. Of course, his heart soared at the kindness of the man that he never noticed before but who seemed to know a lot about his life. One such day passed when he received a notification on his phone about a new video. Disappointment filled him when he realized that the video did not contain a mail time, but he clicked on it to watch anyway. “C’mere Bepo.” He whistled a bit and set up shop in his living room where the video played from the large tv. It started off as usual, giving Law tons of serotonin just by containing Luffy and his awfully cheesy jokes.

Bepo trotted into position and shook his little butt before hopping up and settling into Law’s lap for the video that began to play, displaying a broccoli dish. He let out a little boof of approval before setting his head down and getting comfortable with Law. Law found this absolutely adorable and took a few pictures before sending them off to Penguin and Sachi to post with some weird caption that they would think up. The rest of his focus from that point on solely contained the black-haired marvel. His friend seemed less than thrilled about being paired with the dish just because his hair happened to also be green. Law found this both comical and logical. He could see the progression that Luffy’s mind took to reach the conclusion of Zoro as his companion for this episode.

The show continued on and Zoro provoked Luffy into another rant, which allowed Law to see how others viewed him as an actor and perhaps even as just a regular person. He never got the chance to hear direct feedback like this unless it contained an article relating to a new show or movie. It seemed that most of the time no one cared about him unless something new came out. To be honest, he didn’t mind this being his lot in life and almost preferred it in a sense. He could go to the park or the store and not really be recognized if he kept his head down. However, hearing someone followed his career even when he did not have a major project coming up made the actor a bit mushy and warm inside.

The best surprise of the episode occurred closer to the end of the video and involved the first character that Law ever played, and one that he held some strong feelings for. The fact that Luffy even brought up the character in his rant and plugged the movie almost gave Law a heart attack. He paused the show and found himself looking to Bepo for emotional support, though mostly Bepo just breathed and gazed up to Law as if to ask why the pretty boy on the TV stopped moving. Law took a few deep breaths to cool down as he pressed play and leaned forward to listen better to what Luffy said.

The result of Law’s intense listening? He cried. Dr. Heartbreaker cried because of what a fan said.

This entire thing took Law by surprise and caused him to sob into a blanket that always inhabited the couch for times such as these or when it got cold. Law never heard someone talk about his favorite character portrayal before and if someone did speak about this character, they always seemed to miss the point.

Luffy did not miss the point.

In fact, that entire part of the rant moved Law so much that he could not properly articulate to anyone he called why he couldn’t stop crying and so, Sachi and Penguin both showed up at his house where that section of the video played on a loop. Law completely broke down after years of people getting the character so wrong, Luffy got it so right. It seemed to be mind-boggling and so very freeing to the actor that he just could not stop himself from crying. When his friends showed up, they consoled him as best they could while the video played on loop and eventually got him to calm down and admit that he watched the sunshine boy’s videos constantly. Of course, they already knew this, but having him admit it did the same thing as when an addict admits that they are an addict. It left the topic open for an honest discussion.

While the two came to help their friend through this one specific situation, they decided that the entire situation seemed hopeless without outside assistance. Penguin and Sachi promised Law to help him contact the YouTuber in question before Law ran out of money buying a crazy amount of items that wouldn’t be used by the sunshine boy. They made a proper plan fow what to do if the next gift got rejected.

That evening transitioned into day with the three friends and Bepo snuggled together on the couch. Law woke up first, grumbling at how the clock read an obscenely early time. His face turned a puffy red and he felt far too hot to stay in the cuddle pile. He grumbled and slipped from the couch and onto the floor so Penguin and Sachi shifted to lay on top of one another and he could crawl to the kitchen for coffee. Literally. Law used his arms and legs to push himself into the kitchen. Bepo followed along if only because he felt thirsty and his bowl seemed to be free of water.

Upon getting his coffee, Law fed and watered Bepo, hoping that he could just forget about all the crying he did the night before. Even thinking about what he did in front of his friends brought up the fountain of embarrassment that seemed to be never ending. He sighed and sipped at his coffee, getting his brain going for the day and becoming more and more exhausted with every sip thanks to the ever-rising embarrassment. It would definitely be a day of locking himself away to avoid getting called out by his friends, which would for sure happen. They loved him too much to let something like this go by without poking fun at him.

As the days continued to pass and the mail video finally showed up in Law’s feed, he spent most of his time listening to that video, over and over again. It helped him to remember why he got into acting in the first place and helped him to realize that he wanted to do more than just the sexy doctor. He would take the parts that he could get, but he would never give up trying to bring extra depth like he did in the first character he played. He became more confident and a little more social than he used to be. He still refused to interact with people online that he did not know, but he began responding to his coworkers on his own. The realization that just because popular media did not understand what he tried to do, did not mean his fans didn’t, which allowed Law to build pride in his work.

Law listened to the video so much that it happened to be playing when the next mail video popped onto the channel. He quickly clicked off and onto the new video, excited to see the gifts that he sent be opened with a letter that proved he sent it. Hand-written notes needed to work, or he did not know how he would address being ignored once again. He took his time to watch through the intro and in came the first package, which he knew he sent. He began getting a little nervous and looked to Bepo, who stood ever-dutifully by his owner while the unboxing commenced. 

Once again, his gift would be sent to the charity organization.

Law’s jaw fell to the floor and he just about fainted in his trailer.

A pained howl escaped the man as he stood and began stomping around the trailer, phone thrown to the wall, but luckily did not break. Law went crazy. “ **WHAT THE FUCK DO I HAVE TO DO?!** ” He cried at the screen before falling to his knees and screaming, surely alerting those around him that an issue occurred. His soul left his body and his team found him curled up in a ball on the floor. “Fucking idiot. How… _HOW_ am I supposed to give you shit you fucking….. Rrrraaaggghhhhhh!” The plan made earlier absolutely escaped his mind and he came up with something else, something much more grand.

Once again, the great Trafalgar D. Water Law sobbed because of the sunshine boy and his purity and stupidity. “How….” He whispered to Penguin and Sachi who came in to care for him until he gained his composure once more. They immediately spotted the video and hit play, only to realize what happened and why Law crumbled in tears. That poor YouTuber didn’t know what weight his action held, nor did he know how it affected his favorite actor.

With help from his friends, Law gained his composure and went on to shoot the next parts of the episode and threw in some ad-libs rooted in his personal frustrations. Thankfully, the crew accepted these moments and kept as many in as possible. Law began to plot more and more about what he could do to finally make Luffy understand. He just needed to go a bit bigger and bolder, something that could not be misinterpreted. He steeled himself with determination that this next gift would work and would not under any circumstance be gifted away.

Bigger. Better.

Upon arriving home that evening, Law pulled out his laptop and began searching for some of the most expensive items he could buy for a kitchen. A few ideas populated his mind for what to do and ended up buying a new fridge, a new oven, and completely new utensils including a full knife set and stand. He made sure everything got sent to his house so he could include another note, this time written on his personal stationery that held the words “from the desk of Trafalgar D. Water Law” in golden engraved lettering. Not only that, but Law even took a picture of himself, in his home, with Bepo, in front of a calendar that marked the day and printed it out. He signed the picture and smirked to himself, pinning it to the piece of paper. The note read:

“Kindly stop disregarding my gifts. This is not a trick. I am Trafalgar D. Water Law and I have enclosed a picture that I have also signed in silver sharpie that you will find nowhere on the internet. Please, for the love of all that is holy, don’t give this away.”

If this did not work, Law told Penguin and Sachi that he would be getting on the first flight out to where Luffy lived and he would confront the airhead in person. This would be the final straw before Law fell to his more crazed antics. He could do nothing more to convince this sunshine pea-brain that he did not pretend to be himself. This needed to be the end of things so he could go back to his regular life, maybe with a new favorite video, of course. “If this does not work I am going to break my phone.”

How dumb could Luffy really be? And why did Law still feel such an attraction?


	5. Stunned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy gets a gift he cannot refuse. How will this affect things?

Luffy felt incredibly grateful for his rise in popularity on the internet. Never could he have imagined being able to just ask for donations to be made and a ton of needs be met. He noticed he had even more responsibility than he did when in college. This time, however, Luffy did not freak out and feel deep sadness. This time he became optimistic and it showed in his work and dedication to be the best and do the best that he could. Everyone in his life noticed the happy change, even with Luffy getting outrageous gifts for donations and some just to keep. No one mentioned the Trafalgar D. Water Law body pillow that someone sent. Luffy definitely did  _ not _ sleep with that pillow every night since receiving and washing it.

Nope.

All in all, Luffy became used to receiving fun and thoughtful gifts in his P.O. Box. It seemed to really pay for itself considering how much he could actually acquire in one trip. At one point, there needed to be two cars to bring home the full load and the postal workers found the ridiculous amount of presents to be hilarious, if not tedious. The workers at least appreciated Luffy and his companion’s joking disposition when picking up the packages. It’s all in how the person acted that decided whether or not they received their packages on time. Luffy always got his packages on time thanks to this unspoken rule.

One day after going out for the full day on errands, Luffy and his two brothers returned home to find that something in their apartment changed. Luffy noticed immediately and ran into the kitchen. Completely new appliances such as: a refrigerator, freezer, microwave, oven, and dishwasher filled the spots where the old has resided. No sign of the older appliances anywhere! Luffy assumed that Sabo had given the okay to get rid of their old stuff and looked to him for answers. “I didn’t know we had the budget for a completely new kitchen! Where did the money come from?” He asked, absolutely confused. The brothers made it a point to have meetings about their finances every month. This never made it on the expense report.

Sabo, equally confused, looked around to blame Ace for the new stuff that they could not afford. “I didn’t do any of this. We don’t have the budget for any of this. Ace, why would you do this? The firehouse isn’t paying you enough to back this on your own and none of us make enough combined for all of this without missing rent.” His tone absolutely held animosity for the only person who could have done this.

Everyone seemed to be confused, however, as Ace denied any knowledge of what happened. “Why would I do this?! The meeting this month was clear about what could and couldn’t be bought. This didn’t even make the maybe to reject list! Our old stuff worked fine!” He argued back and pulled out his phone to call the landlord. This couldn’t happen. They couldn’t afford this mix-up.

It took a full-on hour conversation of denial and misunderstanding before Ace hung up the phone to look at his brothers. He then turned to Luffy and pointed the phone at him accusingly. “You. This is because of your YouTube channel.” He began the explanation. “They sent us all of this and paid for the installation! The landlord loves your channel, knew you’d try to reject it, and just let them in to do the install while we were away.” He sighed and rolled his eyes while running his fingers through his hair. “We are not going to be charged for any of this so we might as well enjoy it.” He looked to Sabo who seemed shocked, but happy to have something new.

Luffy felt conflicted about it all. He walked around the small kitchen and caught sight of the note on the counter that lay on the counter with his name on it. He frowned a bit and picked it up. The letter within the envelope insisted that the gift came from Trafalgar D. Water Law and that Luffy couldn’t give away this gift! It made Luffy smile and laugh a bit, but he sighed and tilted his head back. “Fine… We can keep it since it’s already installed and there’s no way we can move all of this out by ourselves.” He nodded.

Sabo piped up and walked over, patting Luffy on the back. “We weren’t going to let you get rid of all this anyway. The oven and dishwasher both stopped working a few days ago and the fridge wasn’t staying to temp. All of our stuff was gonna spoil. We needed this.” He reassured the man with a grin and got to work putting everything away with the help of Ace while Luffy stood and nodded. He almost forgot their appliances broke down and they needed repairs at the least. He grumbled about watching some YouTube videos to learn how to fix the issues himself, but he shook his head a little. He supposed that this one gift could be okay to accept with the circumstances.

The main reason being his brothers would kill him if he even thought about returning/rejecting/donating all of this amazing kitchenware.

Now Luffy needed to make a few calls and make a video about the new kitchenware. He hoped he didn’t lose any of his viewers because of all of this. He sighed a little and began texting his friends about setting up a last-minute video not on the schedule because of this generous donation. He also talked about the note that, once again, claimed everything came from Law. Now, not just anyone could afford to gift an entire kitchen’s worth of appliance, Luffy could at least admit that. Law being the donor could not be rectified in Luffy’s mind. His friends took the opposite position. “The sender has to be Law! Luffy, come on man!” Sanji begged the younger to see reason, but of course, Luffy could not.

“There’s no way! Even with his more active presence on social media, he isn’t one to send this stuff out to nobodies on the internet!” He argued back, which caused the others to give up on the fight. They all agreed on the timing of the newest video and ended the conversation until they met up again.

“Alright guys, I know this isn’t like our usual videos, but something needs to be addressed.” Luffy started the video on the couch in his living room where they rigged up some lighting and set up the camera. “One of you guys has been sending a lot of gifts which I have been donating because of the premise of the show. I am extremely grateful, and you’ve helped a lot of people, but this is on a whole ‘nother level.” He spoke and stood, motioning for the camera to follow him, where he showed off the new kitchen.

“Someone bought us an entirely new kitchen!” He yelled, almost exasperated. “My landlord had all the stuff installed so I couldn’t donate it!” He laughed a bit, showing he did not feel any animosity. “I am so confused! I appreciate it and I know I haven’t said anything, but we did need the new fridge and oven. Ours did stop working. This all came at an amazing time and we truly are so very grateful.” He repeated with a smile, getting a little choked up. “I don’t know who did this, but I want to say thank you from the very bottom of my heart.” Tears filled Luffy’s eyes, which he wiped away. He needed to clear his throat before continuing.

“I got a letter with the appliances that once again claimed to be the actor Trafalgar D. Water Law.” He spoke and sighed before running his fingers through his hair. “As much as I want it to be Law, I really can’t believe that it is. Honestly, even with the unusual uptick in his activity on social media I don’t think it’s him.” He shook his head and grinned. “So, to whomever it is that did gift us this and the other appliances we donated, thank you.” He announced once more before deciding to change the subject.

“Now, let’s take a break from the sappy and get into the awesome! I wanna show you guys what we got and how it works. I’ve been fiddling a bit since this is a major upgrade and I’m unfamiliar with this model.” He commented with a smile to the camera. “This won’t happen to most people but getting new appliances can lead to confusion. You saw how my old oven worked, so I’m gonna show you how this new one works.” He declared and started going through the specs of everything and explaining the difference. He hoped that this could also help people who could possibly be in the market for a new model and needed to know technical terms.

All in all the video ended up being an hour long and they split it into thirty minute videos. The video went up that day and received a huge volume of support from the audience. It made Luffy worry and made him happy about the entire thing. He worried that he would lose followers because he received such a gift and could not donate it, or that maybe people would think he started showing off as soon as he got something new. His intentions never faltered from wanting to teach someone, anyone things that could help them. The comments seemed overwhelmingly positive and happy for him, but there would always be a few negative Nancies.

* * *

The lazy day just barely began. Law finally got a day off and he looked forward to just staying in bed all day with Bepo by his side. Law felt his hand vibrate and pulled his hand up to look at the screen. He opened his phone to the notification of a new video being posted on the Sunshine man’s page and he sat up a bit when he saw the title. “An announcement? What’s going with that?” He mumbled to himself and sat up in his bed, accidentally disturbing the pup who lay at his side. He looked apologetically to the animal and smiled a bit sadly as he reached over to pet the upset puppy. “Wait… two new videos at once? Odd.” He mumbled and clicked on the first in the feed to see a somewhat upset Luffy on a couch. He immediately became concerned. As the video continued, his eyes widened when the new kitchen filled the screen, and he automatically jumped up from his bed and screamed at his phone.

“AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!” 

Finally! Law could feel vindicated that the man finally accepted his gift and now he felt no need to keep watching the videos to make sure the gifts arrived and got accepted. Right? He kept sending the gifts for this moment, even if Luffy  _ still _ refused to acknowledge that he sent everything. Right? Right.

For some reason Law’s elation fell and he just sat down. Why did everything suddenly feel gray? “This… isn’t right.” He grumbled a bit to himself, looking at his phone. It started blowing up with his friends messaging him to talk about how Luffy finally accepted the gift. All the congratulations failed to make him smile. He didn’t know what to do. He sighed a bit and watched as his social media began to blow up too, begging for him to do something, make a comment about the video. He didn’t feel right.

Law messaged his friends and checked his schedule quickly before making a decision that could change the course of his life. Well, maybe the results of the decision he made couldn’t be that drastic. Law still imagined that the outcome could change everything for someone at the very least. He ordered some plane tickets for himself as well as Penguin and Sachi to head out immediately, then he began to pack. Law decided to go find Luffy and settle this once and for all.  **THEN** he could be done with everything.


End file.
